788 as insert?

[sloom]

Just had a moment of inspiration here, as I was thinking about equipping my budding studio with a couple Symetrix compressors/levelers (I have no outboard comps, which I think are a good idea). But... what if I just ran out from the Tascam M-30 (my front-end), into my 788's inputs and through it's on-board Dynamics Processor, into the Terratec soundcard? Signal appears in Sonar HS 4.

Then, as long as I'm thoughtful about using the 788's comp, I have contained the peaks coming from my drum mix, bass signal. Right? Is this a good use of the dynamics processor in the 788- or is it not so well suited for tracking (read: Limiting/levelling) as it is for mixing?

I've used the 788 for recording a poetry reading other live location things, but not too much experience with bands yet- in a controlled environment. I'm after more of a comparison with results from an actual dedicated compressor/leveller type unit. If I can get away with saving some bread for a month, it'd be pretty good.

I'm doing some recording for a couple bands I know (not for money- as you can see I'm asking a pretty elementary question!), and I'd rather do my mixing in Sonar than the 788. For one thing, it's visible on the PC monitor (for the benefit of those in the room)! Also it's not so hidden within the 788's menu format (for the benefit of me).

Dave? Anyone? ...

 

[Trillian]

I've seen people with serious outboard gear dis the compressor in the 788, but I don't think it's as bad as all that. It's certainly better than no compressor, and in fact I think it does well for mixing within the machine itself.

You could use the 788 like a comp unit, but bear in mind that it's not so good at limiting peaks when tracking. Mainly because it's post-preamp in the signal chain; so if you overload the pre's from the get go, all you get is compressed distortion. From there you quickly decend into a thorny hell of how to get around that. You could route the signal from your M-30 into the aux inputs (which bypass the pre's altogether). Which means you're limited to only having a stereo feed through the machine, which is okay if that's your plan anyway. If not, well... I suppose you could try patching the M-30 into the 788 via the virtual submixer, but I haven't used that enough to comment on how well that would work.

Bottom line: it can do in a pinch, but I think you'd be better off with outboard gear in the long run.

 

[sloom]

That's the information I was looking for. Thanks, Trill. No need to ask for trouble- I'll keep at the symetrix I was looking at!